Hands-on with the Windows Store: meet your source for Metro apps

With today's release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, we got our first hands-on experience with the brand-spanking-new Windows Store. The previously released Developer Preview showed an icon (or tile, in Windows 8-speak) for the Store, but clicking it didn't lead anywhere. Now, you can actually download tons of apps that take advantage of the new Metro interface Microsoft is pushing across all its mobile and desktop operating systems.

Microsoft is the king of the desktop and laptop world, of course, but to break into the tablet market in a meaningful way, the app store will need a consumer-friendly experience and, most importantly, lots of great and useful applications. So far, the Windows Store could use some improvement in the methods for discovering applications, but much of the groundwork for a useful app store is available in the Consumer Preview and should be far more advanced by the time a final version of Windows 8 is released. While a touch-based interface will probably provide the best Windows Store experience, we've been using it with mouse and keyboard in a virtual machine and can offer an overview on how it works and some initial thoughts.

In the preview, all the apps are free. But the interface for downloading free trials of paid apps is already present. In some applications there are "buy" and "try" options, as seen here:

At the moment, buying and trying is the same thing—clicking either will download the application, which then appears as a tile on your Start screen. Developers will have the freedom to decide whether to offer trials, which can either limit the number of features or set a time limit on how long the consumer can use the application in its free mode. There will be in-place trial upgrades, as well as in-app purchases.

Microsoft has not said exactly how many apps are available, but there are 78 in the "Top free" section and 61 in "All stars." "Later, there will also be lots of apps that you can buy," Windows executive Kent Walter said in a blog post today. "You’ll be able to try many apps before you buy, and if you like one you’re trying, you can get the full version without losing your place or reinstalling anything."

This is similar to how Windows Phone works, and is more flexible than the iPhone and iPad, which don't offer trial periods for applications (although there are plenty of "lite" versions of iOS apps with limited functionality). Android offers the ability to test out apps and get a refund if you don't like it, but you only have 15 minutes to decide. With Windows Metro apps, developers who decide to offer trial versions will be able to choose how long users may test the apps out before committing to a purchase.

The Windows Store home screen, as seen below, shows a few featured apps, sections for new releases, top paid apps (currently empty), top free apps, and "All stars."

The Store could use better options for sorting through the apps, in particular a list of all the categories (games, news, books, entertainment, productivity, etc.) on the home screen. These categories are all there, but each one gets its own space-consuming tile, meaning you have to keep scrolling to the right to find them all. Even clicking on the "Top free" app section just brings you to a big list, with no division by category. This is a bit annoying on the desktop. On a tablet, it won't be quite as bad, but a list of all categories on one screen would be helpful, which is why both Apple and Google built them into their tablet interfaces.

It's odd, because the categories are all there—just not in a conveniently accessible list. For example, if you click on a game, like Cut The Rope, you'll see categories "Home > Games > Puzzle" at the top left. Clicking on Games brings up a list of games and a drop-down list including all the subcategories, as seen here:

The Store's home screen would be a lot more useful if it contained a similar drop-down menu containing all primary categories. UPDATE: As one reader points out, there is a way to zoom out from the Store home screen to gain a view of all categories. In a keyboard/mouse scenario, you can do this by pressing Control and using the scroll wheel. It hasn't worked on my virtual machine, but I am told it does work on the appropriate hardware, and should be easy on a touch screen.

The category divisions in the Windows Store can also be found in the search bar. Hold your mouse pointer or finger on the top right or top left to bring it up. After completing a search, you'll be able to sort the results by category, price, rating, name, or date of release.

By the time Windows 8 comes out for real, later this year, we'd expect a much more efficient system for sorting and discovering apps. It becomes obvious that the store isn't quite ready for prime time when you scroll all the way to the last screen on the right, click the "Security apps" tile and are told "We can't find any apps for this category." The "Top free" apps section is also a bit of mess. While it usually showed 78 apps, there were times when only ten would appear, or it would show free apps from one random category, like games, without an option to select other categories.

Microsoft stressed that, just like the OS, the Store and apps are still in a preview state. "The OS is at the consumer preview level, the apps are at the app preview level‚ all subject to change," Microsoft said in a statement sent to Ars. "It's early. Now is not a good time to start reviewing the apps, or listing them, or categorizing them."

The interface for the individual apps' description pages is quite useful, with slots for reviews, pictures, the supported processors—x86, x64, and ARM—and the app's permissions. For example, Cut The Rope has just one permission, the right to access your Internet connection, while Photobucket can access the Internet, your webcam, and pictures library. You don't have to do any scrolling to find the app's permissions—it's right up front, and even listed twice:

There doesn't seem to be any link to a privacy policy, but Microsoft has promised to force app makers to provide those as part of a recent agreement with the State of California.

Apps you download from the Windows Store can be installed on up to five PCs. The Consumer Preview has 14 pre-installed apps, including Maps, Xbox Live Games, Solitaire, Mail, Photos, Camera, Reader, and SkyDrive. If there are updates available, you'll see a little number in the Store tile on the Windows 8 Start screen. Maps, Weather, Finance, and Solitaire have already received updates since we installed the Consumer Preview this morning.

If you want to tweak your preferences a bit, you can go into the settings and account preferences in the same way you find the search bar, by moving over to the top right or top left of the screen. Here, you can change the settings on whether to automatically download application updates, or require a password before completing purchases. There are also settings for making it easier to find applications in your preferred languages, and to locate applications that meet accessibility requirements.

So I guess they haven't heard what the Windows Phone dev community has been telling them for the last 18 months - building in trial functionality is pointless if you don't highlight apps with trial versions. Everyone just ends up making a "lite" version anyway to get listed in the more popular "free" section since there's no "trial" category or call out for apps with trial support.

So I guess they haven't heard what the Windows Phone dev community has been telling them for the last 18 months - building in trial functionality is pointless if you don't highlight apps with trial versions. Everyone just ends up making a "lite" version anyway to get listed in the more popular "free" section since there's no "trial" category or call out for apps with trial support.

It is my understanding that every app has a free trial. Is that wrong?

So I guess they haven't heard what the Windows Phone dev community has been telling them for the last 18 months - building in trial functionality is pointless if you don't highlight apps with trial versions. Everyone just ends up making a "lite" version anyway to get listed in the more popular "free" section since there's no "trial" category or call out for apps with trial support.

It is my understanding that every app has a free trial. Is that wrong?

So I guess they haven't heard what the Windows Phone dev community has been telling them for the last 18 months - building in trial functionality is pointless if you don't highlight apps with trial versions. Everyone just ends up making a "lite" version anyway to get listed in the more popular "free" section since there's no "trial" category or call out for apps with trial support.

That's pointless since the majority of paid apps have a trial version (from what I've seen and looking at the top 20 right now they all do). And looking through the top 300 free apps there are very few "lite" versions of apps, normally distinctly made ones. I didn't see the word "lite" used once (some use "FREE", that's about it).

So far it sounds like they have gotten a lot right, certainly it appears easier to use than Apples mishmash of groupings and categories. There is a lot of room for a better experience, and it seems like Microsoft has a few ideas that are going to be worth pursuing. Unfortunately they are probably patenting all of them (not singling them out, just pointing out an industry trend) so that we will only ever have a bunch of half-assed stores. It will literally take an Act of Congress to get us a whole-assed storefront.

"To get a feel for our categories and better understand the types of apps you’ll find in the Store, you can use the pinch gesture to zoom out and see the breadth of the categories, and then tap to jump to a particular category. This same gesture works from the Start screen as well. We call this gesture “semantic zoom” because it allows you to zoom in or out to see more or less detail about what’s on the page. The view of the Store zoomed out exposes all of the app categories at once, ensuring that customers have efficient navigation even if the catalog is large and supports a diversity of categories. The design helps ensure efficient navigation even as the catalog and categories expand. We built the landing page using a standard ListView control, along with the semantic zoom control, which is available to developers of Metro style apps using HTML and JavaScript.

Zoom out to see more categories

With a large number of categories, the flat navigation structure of the Store is really improved with zoom, which is one of the core architectural elements of the Metro style user experience design in Windows 8."

I think the mouse way of doing this is via a button at the right edge of the scrollbar, or via Ctrl-Scroll.

I quite like the emphasis on trial versions, I wish Apple would follow suit. Conversely, I really dislike the 5 computer limit. MS should emulate Apple in that regard (tied to your ID, can be installed on as many computers as you own).

gotta say im pleasantly surprised... I thought I was going to hate the gui but have ended up loving it! I love docking apps off to the side of the desktop. that said the apps I docked could use some work (messenger and music specifically

some things need to be polished; I've been using a mouse all day to scroll, but when I moved my laptop I didn't bring my mouse with me losing the ability.. so I had to start grabbing the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen... the shutdown/restart are in an odd place.. the 'share' button is pointless unless you are using specific apps.. the notifications could use some work too (but im not sure what id do to correct it)

type to search.. awesome, ability to display all apps in the start screen was a nice surprise,settings screen.. awesomelink settings to an email address.. awesomeglobal spell check.. awesomeI also really love the live tiles.. more useful than I thought

the actual touch interface is akin to the playbook; which maybe not many have used but is very solid and easy to use

I'll be installing tonight, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping that they'll have a test SP/update as well, plus some real updates for the store. As someone who has used Zune, WP7 Marketplace, Games for Windows Live (client), Xbox Live, plus Steam, Impulse, and other services, my expectations for a digital service are higher now than when news about the creation Windows Store was initially leaked (2011? 2010?). I even remember Brad Wardell calling for Microsoft to make one, assuming they wouldn't run into FTC/EU trouble.

And, nevermind Apple, isn't this similar to how the Linux guys get stuff? Even if its a consumerized version of that, hey, by all means! If I can use it like how I've used Steam and Impulse, I'm quite happy, especially in terms of recovering from a crash, reinstalling an OS or upgrading to a new computer. Set the downloads, go to bed, and in the morning I'm happy ^_^

Microsoft when are you going to bother to tell people what they already have installed? I mean seriously I shouldn't have to remember that I have it installed. It should show me, like App Store on iOS that it's installed already!!!

I'm downloading the ISO right now. I have a touchscreen laptop so I'll be curious what the look and feel is like in a native touchscreen mode.

I like the up-front security change requirements. I'd like the addition of a "geek mode" button that actually shows what it'll change (as in ACLS and registry).

Just someone trying to incite a flame war.

I have a tabletPC and the the Developer Preview worked well enough. I had trouble with the requirement for a Windows key in most Metro apps, and now that they've removed the orb it will be even worse. That said, new Windows tablets will probably require a Windows key and as I could probably use autohotkey to change one of the keys I do have available in tablet mode to be a Windows key.

"Supported Processors" is a detail in the App summary.That's going to confuse your average Joe.

Seriously, just look at their system and put a big warning there if there's a problem, no need to have it head the details page like that.

Exactly- hide it unless it needs to be known or there is an issue. This could still change OFC, but it wouldn't surprise me if it stayed..

On a device, I'd agree. If you're looking at it on a desktop, it might be fine to leave it in there. If I own a phone, tablet, and desktop, all running some flavor of Win8/Phone, it might be nice to have one place that shows at one glance which of my devices it will work on.

Consider Android's version of this. On a phone or tablet, the app will simply not show up in the market if it's not supported for that device, whether it's because of the processor, country, OS version, etc. If you go to the market in a browser, however, you can see all the apps, and it will tell you which of your devices it's compatible with. It's not perfect, but it works pretty well.

I think they're doing the right thing with regard to trial versions, though. It's problematic(as both a developer and consumer) to publish two apps separately to achieve this. There are other ways to do it on iOS/Android, like paid "keys" or in-app purchases, but it really should be a baked-in option. What remains to be seen is how robust their security for it is. If it's easy to crack the "trial mode" setting in one app, that would lead to a crack in them all.

Third, app discovery sucks on every official app store I've seen. If you are searching for a specific app, or just browsing the "top" lists, it's fine for the most part, but that's it. Pointing it out about WS may be true, but it's not like any other operating system has anything much better. Third party discovery tools are better in every case.

I've been using this for a bit. It seems like you can't window apps? At least I haven't been able to figure out how. That's a pretty big problem with using this on Desktop.

Not having used it yet, I'm curious... can anyone tell me how this works with multi-monitor setups? Can you have one app per monitor, or does it maximize to cover all screens? Using linux with two monitors currently, and my normal workflow is to have one program running maximized on each monitor(with the exceptions of small apps like calculator, etc), and flipping through virtual desktops with compiz. Having most things maximized doesn't bother me much, but if it completely destroys multi-monitor mode, that's where I draw the line.

Of course, I know you can flip to the "classic" Win7 view, but I'm not sure I trust Microsoft to keep that feature in the future, say Windows 9?

This kind of feels like lion (and perhaps mountain lion), where there are some features that I really like (filevault 2) and some features that are meh (multi display fullscreen application), where I like the new task manager and file copier, but overall the interface seems very hard to use for a desktop environment. Though I haven't tried it (just like I've never tried lion), hopefully it'll be refined before release (or in windows 9).

I've been using this for a bit. It seems like you can't window apps? At least I haven't been able to figure out how. That's a pretty big problem with using this on Desktop.

Not having used it yet, I'm curious... can anyone tell me how this works with multi-monitor setups? Can you have one app per monitor, or does it maximize to cover all screens? Using linux with two monitors currently, and my normal workflow is to have one program running maximized on each monitor(with the exceptions of small apps like calculator, etc), and flipping through virtual desktops with compiz. Having most things maximized doesn't bother me much, but if it completely destroys multi-monitor mode, that's where I draw the line.

Of course, I know you can flip to the "classic" Win7 view, but I'm not sure I trust Microsoft to keep that feature in the future, say Windows 9?

One screen is the "Start Screen"... screen. The other isn't affected by the Metro interface and is always showing desktop. This was in the Developer Preview. I haven't had a chance to test the Consumer Preview yet.

No, you don't have to dedicate an entire monitor to the Start Screen, but it will the screen when you do bring it up. It is wild to run a Metro application in one window and the conventional desktop in the other.

One screen is the "Start Screen"... screen. The other isn't affected by the Metro interface and is always showing desktop. This was in the Developer Preview. I haven't had a chance to test the Consumer Preview yet.

No, you don't have to dedicate an entire monitor to the Start Screen, but it will the screen when you do bring it up. It is wild to run a Metro application in one window and the conventional desktop in the other.

Well the image link is blocked here, but I think I get what you're saying. I might have to check this out. I'm dual-booting with Win7 now, but I don't use it that often, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade. It'd be fun to play with, though.

Question about xBox companion app - does it allow my laptop to be used as a keyboard in xBox? Because "typing" with controller is annoying. Granted, you do not type that much, but when you do, I wanna kick a puppy. ><

I've been using this for a bit. It seems like you can't window apps? At least I haven't been able to figure out how. That's a pretty big problem with using this on Desktop.

Not having used it yet, I'm curious... can anyone tell me how this works with multi-monitor setups? Can you have one app per monitor, or does it maximize to cover all screens? Using linux with two monitors currently, and my normal workflow is to have one program running maximized on each monitor(with the exceptions of small apps like calculator, etc), and flipping through virtual desktops with compiz. Having most things maximized doesn't bother me much, but if it completely destroys multi-monitor mode, that's where I draw the line.

Of course, I know you can flip to the "classic" Win7 view, but I'm not sure I trust Microsoft to keep that feature in the future, say Windows 9?

One screen is the "Start Screen"... screen. The other isn't affected by the Metro interface and is always showing desktop. This was in the Developer Preview. I haven't had a chance to test the Consumer Preview yet.

No, you don't have to dedicate an entire monitor to the Start Screen, but it will the screen when you do bring it up. It is wild to run a Metro application in one window and the conventional desktop in the other.

Wow, that looks really, really jarring in that screenshot. It feels like when I remote into a linux box, and fullscreen the display on my second monitor.